Sahara Sea

[Techno-Druid]

I was reading about an idea that came into being in the late 19th to early 20th centuries about building canals from the Qattara Depression in Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, especially creating a sea. Of course a lot of it was speculatory and mostly abandoned.

However, would there be any major human-related or ecological benefits in building bodies of water in the Sahara? If you were to create a Qattara Sea or fill depressions in North Africa in water by connecting them to the Altantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea?

[Grimbold21]

This reminds of what the Nazis did in The man in the High Castle, that is, draining the Mediterranean for farm land or smth

[GennGreymane]

I was reading about an idea that came into being in the late 19th to early 20th centuries about building canals from the Qattara Depression in Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, especially creating a sea. Of course a lot of it was speculatory and mostly abandoned.

However, would there be any major human-related or ecological benefits in building bodies of water in the Sahara? If you were to create a Qattara Sea or fill depressions in North Africa in water by connecting them to the Altantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea?

hard to say, would require a large project as its basically sand, not soil. So it would be kinda pointless unless you basically did a large terraforming job.

[Puupi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa

[Kalis]

Could this affect Mediterranean Sea levels? I do not want to walk an extra minute to the sea, it already takes me five.

[Independent voter]

There are some big below sea level areas in California, "Death Valley" comes to mind and is a cool name. I don't know about flooding it, I think they made it a national park.

[Techno-Druid]

hard to say, would require a large project as its basically sand, not soil. So it would be kinda pointless unless you basically did a large terraforming job.

Yeah, I've thought about that too. I imagine you could import soil for the purpose of establishing farming communities, but I imagine that would be expensive, especially with the harsh winds of the Sahara potentially blowing the soil away.

Not an expert or that knowledgeable on the subject, so if I say things that sound stupid, feel free to correct me.

[Kalis]

Yeah, I've thought about that too. I imagine you could import soil for the purpose of establishing farming communities, but I imagine that would be expensive, especially with the harsh winds of the Sahara potentially blowing the soil away.

Not an expert or that knowledgeable on the subject, so if I say things that sound stupid, feel free to correct me.

Every year in Cyprus they have dust storms, which is basically a large chunk of the Sahara blowing over the island. Changing the make up of the Sahara could affect adversely effect the Mediterranean in ways we do not know, so best not to fuck about with things too much.

[P for Pancetta]

It's a very complex thing to terraform a desert, since most of the sand is extremely infertile and lacks nutrients for plants to grow. Usually in the sea when sand-beds rise birds use them as resting grounds and leave their shit (and seeds) behind. A possibility is to try and flood the area lightly and try and grow algae in the water in order to slowly create a fertile plain for plants to root and grow on.

[Puupi]

Every year in Cyprus they have dust storms, which is basically a large chunk of the Sahara blowing over the island. Changing the make up of the Sahara could affect adversely effect the Mediterranean in ways we do not know, so best not to fuck about with things too much.

Happens in Canary Islands, too. Huge red dust storms!

[Techno-Druid]

Every year in Cyprus they have dust storms, which is basically a large chunk of the Sahara blowing over the island. Changing the make up of the Sahara could affect adversely effect the Mediterranean in ways we do not know, so best not to fuck about with things too much.

Yeah, the dust also makes it's way across the Atlantic Ocean and supplies a lot of the sand for the beaches in the Caribbean. I'm not talking about terraforming the entirety of the Sahara.

[Kalis]

Yeah, the dust also makes it's way across the Atlantic Ocean and supplies a lot of the sand for the beaches in the Caribbean. I'm not talking about terraforming the entirety of the Sahara.

I would prefer to know what the effects are going to be on the Eastern Mediterranean before anyone undertook such a project, it could be negative, which is not going to have very much benefit to a region that is notoriously volatile.

[Symphonic]

Could this affect Mediterranean Sea levels? I do not want to walk an extra minute to the sea, it already takes me five.

Depends. If we melt enough of the polar ice caps, we might want to find ways to bring the water inland to counter the rising sea levels.

[GennGreymane]

Yeah, I've thought about that too. I imagine you could import soil for the purpose of establishing farming communities, but I imagine that would be expensive, especially with the harsh winds of the Sahara potentially blowing the soil away.

Not an expert or that knowledgeable on the subject, so if I say things that sound stupid, feel free to correct me.

Its certainly doable, but would require a ton of resources to the point of being kinda pointless.

[Kalis]

Depends. If we melt enough of the polar ice caps, we might want to find ways to bring the water inland to counter the rising sea levels.

Rising sea levels would mean I am closer to the sea, why would I want to counter that?

[Mayhem]

Apart from changing weather patterns, does anyone predict the impact the added pressure would have?

[Deleted]

Put ME and North Africa under the sea sounds good, we could still get the oil.

[Puremallace]

People realize the Sahara used to be a sea right until the continent moved North. I would not be opposed to this because it would affect Hurricanes that like to form off the coast of Africa and head towards my house in Louisiana lol

Rising sea levels would mean I am closer to the sea, why would I want to counter that?

At some this might be required to lower the Med sea levels

[Techno-Druid]

People realize the Sahara used to be a sea right until the continent moved North. I would not be opposed to this because it would affect Hurricanes that like to form off the coast of Africa and head towards my house in Louisiana lol



At some this might be required to lower the Med sea levels

As recently as a few thousand years ago there were two (maybe more) major lakes in the Sahara; Lake Megafezzan in modern day Libya and Lake Megachad in modern day Chad.